Date:         Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:07:23 -0400
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
              <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
              <[log in to unmask]>
From:         "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Storing Mini-Discs
Comments: To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
          <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
In-Reply-To:  <[log in to unmask]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 06:18 PM 10/13/2005, Mike Richter wrote:
>Richard L. Hess wrote:
>
>>Digitally transfer them to two CD-Rs and store the CD-Rs. Or better 
>>yet, if you have a managed digital archive that can accept them, 
>>store them in that.
>>I don't think many of us think that MDs are archival. I wouldn't 
>>worry about an archival box for a medium that probably isn't 
>>archival. I don't think we can expect the long-term availability of 
>>MD players as compared to CD players.
>
>I nearly replied along similar lines - then realized that there is 
>no reason the MD would not be durable and even archival as a medium. 
>The format is hardly recommend for quality recording and players may 
>well be a problem, but as a storage medium the M-O scheme employed 
>should be resistant to most of the ills other media are heir to.
>
>Because of cost, mechanism and format, MD is not attractive for 
>archiving and probably has not had the sort of study archivists 
>would value, but given that the recordings are already on MD, a less 
>drastic solutions than transferring the content may be fitting.

Perhaps archiving four digital-output MD players for the first 500 or 
fewer MDs and then one additional player per 250 disks might suffice. 
Half of these should be tested every year on a rotating basis. 
Failure of a single player should trigger the transfer to the current 
medium of choice if playback machines are not then currently 
available. If the machines are available, then more should be 
purchased and archived.

Does anyone know what it costs to recover an MD at 
http://www.esdl.co.uk/ ? These people sell a drive/utility which 
might be another approach to transfer, but the drives they sell are 
already discontinued and they keep asking for them.

Cheers,

Richard


Richard L. Hess                              [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada             http://www.richardhess.com/
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm